What is better than a microscale city? Absolutely nothing! Building on a scale this small requires a high level of detail to fit in a extremely tiny area. Is it for everyone? No, but everyone should be able to appreciate the time and effort micro city builders put into work. To better illustrate my point I decided to create a tribute displaying the past, present, and future direction of micro cities on MOCpages. Below are thirty cities which show a wide range of ability and techniques used to create these little wonders of awesomeness.

About this creation

Above, designed by the master himself, is Sean Kenney's Microscale Waterfront which was composed from a limited edition Lego tub in November 2004. This is the second known oldest micro city on MOCpages. To see more of his mircoscale creations (and other stuff) you can visit seankenney.com .
Below, the great Nannan Z's Bley City is the site of a UFO abduction. What really makes this city cool is the light used to illuminate the tractor beam.
Posted: July 23rd, 2006

Perhaps the second greatest city on MOCpages, Luseville was built by JD Luse during the same time period as Shannonia and Blocktropolis. Along with the other two, Luseville formed part of the 'Big Three', similar to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in the US. Because of the so called formation in 2008, 2009 produced an unprecendented wave of microscale cities.
Posted: December 13th, 2008 Moonview Highway is a scene from Mario Kart for the Wii system. Kenneth Gucyski has designed several such small scale scenes, and plans to post more in the future.
Posted: December 30th, 2008 Shannonia is no doubt the greatest micro city ever to hit MOCpages, and is the New York of the 'Big Three'. Shannon Young's city single handedly inspired a generation (on the site) to build in microscale. Too bad it came to memorable end.
Posted: February 19th, 2009
Cody G's New Codania is a medium sized micro city which features very colorful buildings. This is the second version of the city, which includes a ton of details.
Posted: September 20th, 2009 Afolsville is a fictional city on a watefront which houses only AFOLs. The city turns ugly when a ban of TFOLs decide to wreak havoc. Both sides battle it out until Chris Phipson (the designer) decides that the TFOLs come out victorious (why Chirs, WHY?)
Posted: October 1st, 2009
Heath 'kik36' Flor's Crystal Lake is a futuristic city that is situated on Europa, a moon of Juipter. The city sits atop a mushroom cloud formed by the result of a nuclear warhead. This creation was inspired from Shannonia as well as Luseville.
Posted: June 22nd, 2010

Scalescape provides insight on how tiles can be used to represent different ideas in microscale. Michael Labelle's has also demonstrated the ability to design very realistic terrain. (follow the link to see more)
Posted: August 10th, 2010

Old City was my first large scale city on MOCpages. A few weeks after the post I became fed up and tore it down in search of a more realistic style of building.
Posted: September 8th, 2010 Apolis was built by A.A. (AKA Noname) and is an example of a small scale futuristic city. The MOC even includes a bonus building, which you will have to follow the link to see.
Posted: October 6th, 2010 Brickville is now the official name for my mirco city. Essentially this is where my progress currently stands. I plan to have about double this for Brickworld in June.
Posted: January 22nd, 2011
Erik Rennick's Supertall might be the longest continual WIP micro city on MOCpages. The first post dates back to June 2009, and he continues to update regularly. Supertall is both gigantic in height and size.
Posted: February 28th, 2011

Including myself, I only know of three people have continually updated their micro cities. The other two are Erik Rennick (previously mentioned) and Sam Knavel, who has created Joston-Garrett . Could we be in the early stages of forming another 'Big Three'? Only time will tell.
Posted: February 28th, 2011
Conner Nandell's recent city Arcancilia is a fine example of a waterfront MOC. Notice the differences between this and Nannan Z's Bley City.
Posted: March 19th, 2011

(Note: Permission was granted to post all images shown above)

Sadly a large percentage of MOCpages' user who build in microscale have vanished from the site, so I could not receive permission for a number of cities. Below are an additional 15 cities for those of us who just caught mini city fever.

2003

Mini Layout - JOHN
The oldest micro city layout on MOCpages.
Posted: March 15th, 2003

2005

Future City - Douglas Brod
One of the first large scale micro city layouts to appear on MOCpages.
Posted: August 21st, 2005

2008

Coruscant - Gabriel Whittemore
This city is amazingly futuristic!
Posted: August 12th, 2008

2009

Domino City - Savior Ensign Vega Gomez
This micro city was inpired by Bricktropolis.
Posted: March 21st, 2009 Kairosberg - Kaiser Pharaoh Cliffe
A mini city with an Egyptian theme.
Posted: February 10th, 2009 Blocktropolis - Thomas N
Possibly the third best micro city on MOCpages, Blocktropolis rounds out the 'Big Three'.
Posted: April 15th, 2009 Michaelton - Mike Taylor
One of the first great LDD cities.
Posted: May 10th, 2009 Micro City - Joaquín Cantolla
One of my favorite micro cities.
Posted: June 6th, 2009 Micro City - Josue Mendoza
A very 'sharp and pointed' city.
Posted: July 15th, 2009

2010

Lexington - Taylor Lex
A very tall LDD mirco city.
Posted: February 3rd, 2010 Leegoland - Lee Hardwick
One of the first microscale builders to show a building in progress.
Posted: May 29th, 2010 Caprica City - El Barto !
A great city with part inspiration from my Old City and Joaquín Cantolla's Micro City.
Posted: August 31st, 2010 Planet Corneria - Leon Powalski
A very tall (and expensive) LDD city.
Posted: December 18th, 2010 Chicago - Darius Sykes
A nice rendition of downtown Chicago
Posted: December 29th, 2010

2011

Ellysium City - Eric 'Hawk' Mickle
A cool city with a nicely designed river.
Posted: Janurary 1st, 2011

While there are dozens of other micro cities, I'm not going to sit here and list every single one. It took me nearly two weeks to gather permission and several hours to write the tribute. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely worth it. I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did. Long live the micro city!

BONUS!

Lakeshore City - Ryan T.
A great place to live on the lake.
Posted: January 6th, 2010

AH! Shame I am not active enough to have noticed your request for picture information... "The Big Three" huh, Well I am truly honored. And... AN IMPORTANT NEWS BULLETIN TO MICRO-CITY AND BLOCKTROPOLIS FANS EVERYWHERE: The city of Blocktropolis is alive and well (as am I, contrary to popular belief). The next edition of the city is still under construction. However, all of the new buildings have completed, and only new tiles and plates are begin waited on to complete the roads and Bay. Once the tiles have arrived, the city will be completed in yet another new edition. I thank any of you patient enough to wait for your patience, and for everyone else, I'm sorry for being so long in the construction process. ~T

paul, this research is awesome!...and instructive! i absolutely loved it! it s a facinating subject, and so many variations in style, and techniques, your work fires the micro city builder in all of us paul, bravo!

Great tribute, and thanks for the mention. As for Leegoland it's been redesigned and rebuilt as we speak. When you asked me to join MCA group, you sparked my interest in micro building again and I set out to create a new and bigger city.

This is a great tribute Paul, thanks for adding me into the fine list of contributors! I definitely plan on doing more microcity building in the future. I just recently moved and am still setting up my LEGO area.....while contending in the MOC Athalon, so it's slow going. LOL Once done I will have a few dedicated building tables for long term builds, and I will do a large layout then. BTW, I will be at BW this year and look forward to meeting you and your creations in person.

First, in answer to your question of "why?" here's the follow up moc to that one: http://mocpages.com/moc.php/157661 Now then, this is an excellent tribute to the great microcities of MOCpages! Thanks for putting this together and sharing it. Hopefully some others will be inspired to create their own and we'll have an influx of amazing microbuilds! ~ Chris.